Amendment to tribunal appeal forms mandates use of revised forms and invites stakeholder feedback for excise, customs and service tax
Amendment revises and standardizes the appeal forms for Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax, prescribes mandatory use of the revised forms after an interim transition period, and clarifies features by related circulars; stakeholders are invited to submit feedback to improve simplicity, user-friendliness and database utility.

Monetary policy stance: maintain status quo amid persistent inflation risks and external vulnerabilities, with nuanced forward guidance.
The Committee recommended maintaining the existing monetary policy stance due to persistent core inflation and upside food- and fuel-driven risks, a large fiscal deficit sustaining inflation persistence, muted domestic growth with stagnant manufacturing, and external vulnerabilities including current account pressures and potential capital outflows; members advised building foreign-exchange reserves, selectively intervening to manage volatility or appreciation, and adopting nuanced forward guidance to anchor expectations while remaining conditional on durable disinflation.

Currency management responsibility: refocus central bank on planning while shifting distribution and last mile delivery to banks and private agents.
The Reserve Bank of India is responsible for planning, issuance, security design, forecasting, distribution and withdrawal of banknotes, while coins are issued by the Government of India and put into circulation by the RBI. India faces high withdrawal rates of soiled notes, distribution challenges across vast terrain, rising production costs and counterfeit risks. Measures include a High Level Committee to reassign distribution roles to banks and private agents, mechanisation and standardisation of processing, direct remittance from presses to banks, pursuit of a Clean Note Policy, and calls for vendor due diligence, R&D for durable and green banknote materials, and cross stakeholder cooperation to curb counterfeiting.

Capital account management: calibrated liberalisation with capital controls and derivative limits to preserve currency stability.
Policy favours calibrated progressive opening of the capital account to mobilise stable long term finance while safeguarding balance of payments and exchange rate stability. The Reserve Bank combines reserve management and interventions with modulation of capital controls and restrictions on derivatives to curb speculative flows. A hierarchy of inflows is maintained-prioritising FDI, managing portfolio investment, and tightly regulating ECBs-with prudential safeguards for unhedged foreign currency exposures. Reform sequencing emphasises predictability, gradualism and regulatory irreversibility considerations.

Trade promotion: high-level delegation to Hong Kong India Show to boost exporter links and market access.
A senior commerce official will lead a high level delegation to the India Show in Hong Kong, timed with the Hong Kong Spring Fair, to promote Indian exporters and innovations through an exhibition, one to one business meetings and ancillary events, using Hong Kong as a bridgehead to connect Indian suppliers with international and Chinese buyers and to deepen economic cooperation and market access.

Standards-driven regulation: push for comprehensive law to align industry, government and international trade rules and compliance.
India must strengthen its standards architecture through a comprehensive law to notify and mainstream standards, creating a consultative mechanism that unites BIS, other standards bodies, industry and government. This legal framework aims to harmonise rule-making, leverage SPS and TBT agreements, address low international notifications, and ensure compliance is affordable for MSMEs to sustain export competitiveness.

Reserve Bank holds policy rate, shifts liquidity from overnight to term repos to improve transmission and support a disinflation glide path.
The Reserve Bank holds the policy repo rate at 8.0% and CRR at 4.0%, reduces overnight LAF access while increasing 7- and 14-day term repo accommodation to 0.75% of NDTL to improve policy transmission; reverse repo, MSF and Bank Rate remain unchanged. The Bank targets a disinflationary glide path to 8% CPI by January 2015 and 6% by January 2016, citing moderated global growth, sticky core inflation and domestic sectoral weaknesses. Concurrently, a five-pillar reform agenda advances banking structure, Basel III implementation timelines, liquidity and market development, foreign investment regimes and financial inclusion and resolution frameworks.